Intergalactic Mobile Learning Center is a collection of student applications to create maps, sketches, and progress charts through collaboration with peers. It includes a management system "in the cloud." Khan Academy, a collection of more than 3,500 short instructional videos featuring learning activities in the areas of math, science, computer science, finance, economics, humanities, and test prep, provides resources through the WeKhan tool.

For March 1, 2015: Did you hear about "The Dress" that "broke the internet?" Why do we see some images in different ways? The Optical Society, a professional organization, has created a website called Optics for Kids that delves into the patterns, colors, and light that fool the brain.

Designed to align with Benchmarks for Science Literacy, Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core, Backyard Engineers is the first physical science game to be officially released by the developer.

For February 15, 2015: The Footprints app that was designed to allow parents to keep track of their kids has some upbeat educational uses as well. For example, it can be used on field studies of ecosystems.

The free app is available for download in the App Store and reinvents how visitors to the museum can experience select specimens on view in its historic "Bone Hall," an exhibit of almost 300 vertebrate skeletons.

MindLaunch students of all ages now have the ability to quickly and easily select the kind of online teacher who best suits their needs and personality, and then be automatically matched and scheduled to begin a quality learning experience in any subject.

Makerspaces: flashy trend or core to school libraries' mandate? Stephen asks the question, explores "making" in depth, and, unsurprisingly, urges you to support all types of spaces and the maker movement.

MindPlay's new course uses a combination of lectures, videos, written information, and activities, organized into eight modules to help teachers gain a more complete understanding of how the English language works and what every student needs to become a proficient reader. Teachers can earn up to eight hours of professional development credits for successfully completing the course.

World Atlas allows teachers and students to bring geography curriculum to life through robust maps and data layers and rich content. The dynamic digital classroom resource platform allows for users to create, draw on, annotate, and share custom maps.

PBS Math Club is a series of short videos in YouTube format, essentially a YouTube "channel" intended to work like a casual, after-school study club. It is social-media intensive since it is a vlog (video blog) of sorts and allows students to comment. Users with YouTube accounts subscribe to the program.

For November 1, 2014: Check out StoryBee--a great starting point for language arts teachers--to hear professional storytellers like Native American Debra Morningstar spin tales such as How Raccoon Got His Mask.

The TIME For Kids Classroom App enables teachers to integrate multimedia and real-world connections into their K-6 classrooms, address students' individual abilities with leveled content, meet Common Core State Standards and put current events into context for young learners.

Educators and students this fall are benefiting from online resources from ProQuest that are mobile optimized, include new instructional tools and features, and vetted content aligned to national standards.

The first six Student Discovery Sets are available now for the iPad, and can be downloaded for free on iBooks. These sets cover the U.S. Constitution, Symbols of the United States, Immigration, the Dust Bowl, the Harlem Renaissance, and Understanding the Cosmos.

For September 15, 2014: Constitution Day will be celebrated on Wednesday September 17, 2014, and the Bill of Rights Institute's Landmark Supreme Court Cases website is a great topical resource for your students!

Goodreads, a social media site for finding and sharing book titles, has more than 20 million members. The site enables people to share books they are reading, rate books they have already read, and list what they are considering next. They can do this publicly or among a self-selected network of online friends.

The new courses for grades K-8 were designed and created after the Common Core standards were released, ensuring each benchmark is addressed appropriately. Through engaging songs, video, and games , the interactive lessons help struggling students catch up on previous year standards, master current grade level standards, and perform well on the new computer-based year-end tests.

MimioStudio software licenses are now being sold with Epson BrightLink interactive projectors through Epson's reseller network. The software may also be purchased separately by existing BrightLink customers who wish to create collaborative and engaging classrooms.

The Radix Endeavor is an educational MMO game in development funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. A MMO game is a massively multiplayer online game that must be played online and can be played by thousands of students at the same time.

With increasingly widespread adoption and integration of Common Core's Next Generation Science Standards and Visual and Performing Art Standards, and with educators seeking solutions to combine the best features in a cross-discipline approach to science and the arts, the time for STEM to STEAM has come.

Designed with an instructional approach to actively engage students, Tutorials provide classroom teachers with the flexibility they need to address each student's individual learning needs, according to the announcement.

Flashcards are one of the faster and better ways to memorize most kinds of information. Cram utilizes the Leitner system of studying and can be used to create and store flashcards for later use or to borrow flashcards created by others. Flashcards can be created and studied on whichever electronic device is used to access the website or run the app.

In theory, ebooks can provide your students with easy access from all of their devices to reading material, writes Carolyn. But for libraries, there are all sorts of issues to be resolved in order to offer ebooks to our students. Developing an ebook collection is more fraught with questions than answers.

There's a place for digital citizenship education throughout our school experience, from elementary to post-secondary. So this month, Victor has gathered some excellent resources on the subject of teaching this timely topic. Read 'em, use 'em. It's practically an educator's digital civic duty!

Reading Assistant is designed to be used by beginning readers, English language learners, and struggling readers who have attained basic word recognition and decoding skills and are now building their vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.

Primary sources are not just for history—they can enhance learning, questioning, and creative thinking in the science or health classroom as well. Mary Alice's quest to learn more about the fluoroscope led her to compile a primary source guide for those interested in the sciences.

The software empowers children ages 6-14 to explore their keenest interests by playing an interest-finding game. After they've decided on a few interests, they can then discover relevant books and movies via a personalized recommendation engine.

The nation's premier science competition for students in grades 5-8, the Challenge rewards students for their science acumen, demonstration of innovative thinking and communication skills. Through the Challenge, students have the opportunity to compete for $25,000 and the title of "America's Top Young Scientist."

Door 24 is the second in a new series of educational games for the iPad that target the most essential skills for achievement in reading and mathematics, and that motivate students to develop these skills through the power of game design.

Each webinar in the "Of the People" series will provide students and educators with a behind-the-scenes look at White House operations and an introduction to administration officials. Webinars will address topics that range from community service to climate change and from foreign policy to science and technology.

Discoveryed has expanded content partnerships with some of the world's most respected producers, including MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, BBC Worldwide, and Rand McNally. These new partnerships add custom-built news programs, documentary films, and other dynamic digital resources that use current, real-time, global events to bring instruction to life.

The series is designed to connect classroom learning to exciting careers that students aspire to. "Math@Work: Math Meets Fashion" takes three students on a tour of designer Diane von Furstenberg's New York City studio to learn about the mathematical thinking and problem solving required in this career.

Shmoop has created a one-of-a-kind video platform for its growing video content. Featuring hundreds of educational videos with a humorous bent on every subject including math, history, literature, and test prep, ShmoopTube helps teachers incite class discussions and students better understand tough concepts.

Net Texts is a series of textbooks and a management and development system intended to supplement or replace textbooks, thereby saving money and taking advantage of student fascination with and involvement in current technology.

Created in collaboration with Instructables.com and the American Library Association, Make It @ Your Library is tailored to librarians interested in implementing makerspace projects in their libraries. The fully searchable site connects users to projects based on library-specific search criteria.

The resources released by SETDA, the State Educational Technology Directors Association, provide recommendations for how the Common Core State Standards could be digitally encoded to support the transparent high-quality alignment of education resources to those standards, including an approach to encoding state-adopted extensions of the CCSS.

Designed specifically to support educators using digital media to enhance instruction and engage students, the Common Core Academies provide practical strategies and tactics that support long-term action planning as well as immediate implementation.

The one- and two-day institutes will be held in nine U.S. cities between November 2013 and February 2014 on five Common Core topics. Each institute targets a specific audience of educators with skills they need to implement the Common Core in their particular role.

Audiobook Premier Collection and Audiobook Youth Collection have been added to EBSCO's audiobook subscription collections, which allow libraries to subscribe to a growing collection of audiobooks for an annual fee with additional titles added regularly at no additional cost.

Subscribers to World Book eBooks receive 24/7 unlimited simultaneous access to the entire collection, enabling school librarians and public librarians to offer World Book eBooks at all times to all users-no holds or waiting.

For September 15, 2013: Geography teachers will find a treasure trove of tools to use in their classrooms at the National Atlas Website. For starters, students can trace the flow of America's streams with an interactive map.

Teachers use Mobl21 programs to create structured student learning materials. After those materials are transferred to student devices, students can use them anytime, anywhere. Emantras has created communities for sharing teacher-created materials.

Mary Alice previews a range of classroom materials on the Library of Congress (LC) Teachers page that are created "by teachers for teachers" and that "provide easy ways to incorporate the LC's unparalleled primary sources into instruction."

With a total of 10 item types for testing, Study Island gives educators an industry-leading learning solution that can help students demonstrate a greater depth of understanding in math and English language arts, according to the announcement.

Featuring hundreds of model lessons, performance tasks and custom assessments, the enhanced Discovery Education Streaming Plus engages students with interactive features and supports educators at all levels as they integrate the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) into classroom instruction.

The StraightAce Learning digital learning system focuses on math and English concepts, resulting in an interactive, multi-platform learning tool that is fully aligned with Common Core State Standards and that can be accessed anytime, anywhere, on any device.

Conceptua Math delivers online, visual and conceptual math curriculum to both students and teachers. The program is organized into month-long Big Ideas, units that are Common Core aligned and designed to foster deep conceptual understanding.

Launched as part of a partnership agreement announced earlier this year, the new archive will include the complete back files of both magazines as well as Gale's advanced research tools, and will support cross-curricular and interdisciplinary studies in schools and in academic spaces.

The lessons are aligned to the final version of the recently released NGSS, which were built upon a vision for science education established by the Framework for K-12 Science Education and published by the National Academies' National Research Council in 2011.

Schools across the country are signing up for the service, through which they can combine free OER content with their own resources to create and publish lessons directly to students' iPads, Android tablets, or computers.

Discovery Education has announced the development of Discovery Education STEM Camp, a series of standards-aligned STEM curricula available at no cost to schools, districts, non-profit organizations and parents.

Discovery Education Techbooks are a complete text solution that addresses each state's Core Standards (currently available in 36 states), with a simple-to-use system that helps teachers transition to digital resources while substantially lowering district costs. This primary instructional resource provides dynamic, interactive resources that support the 5E model of instruction (engage, explore, explain, extend, and evaluate) with a variety of digital resources.

Britannica School was developed to replace textbooks with digital alternatives that address each state's core standards and engage student curiosity to enhance learning. An easy-to-use system helps teachers transition to digital resources and use them, while lowering district costs.

In 2010, digital textbooks accounted for just 1% of the U.S. textbook market. In 2012, it was 5.5 percent. And it's climbing. Victor offers a company-by-company look providing you with some idea of what lies ahead.

For May 1, 2013: The Scholastic Summer Reading Challenge begins May 6 and is designed to keep kids reading and prepared in a friendly, competitive way. Educators can track the reading progress of their students and access classroom resources by registering their classes.

For April 1, 2013: Many states include the study of fossils as part of the curriculum during the spring, and Cyberbee's current Web Pick, Create a Fossil, from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, can be a big help.

The PBS LearningMedia Teacher Core is comprised of K-12 educators and library media specialists from across the country. In partnership with their local PBS member station, they will work to champion digital learning in their communities.

For March 15, 2013: The World Fact Book, published annually by the Central Intelligence Agency, provides information about countries around the world, including population, maps, flags, and other statistical data.

Covered here ever so briefly via a press announcement earlier, Cengage's plans following its licensing agreement with the Smithsonian Institution are fully described and explored by Online Searcher magazine's editor-in-chief Marydee Ojala in her NewsBreak posting on the Information Today, Inc. website.

As the latest addition to the company's Techbook line, which now includes K-12 science and middle school social studies offerings, Math Techbook furthers Discovery Education's commitment to developing a full suite of digital solutions for today's classrooms.

Immediate plans in the library space include the creation of a digital archive of the complete back files of both Air and Space magazine and Smithsonian Magazine, and will incorporate new issues on an ongoing basis.

Compass Learning Odyssey, which is fully aligned to the Common Core State Standards, includes complete K-12 math, language arts, social science, and science curriculum, which are research-based and include interactive activities, manipulatives, videos, graphics, and animations along with audio reading passages in digital format.

Teachers and media specialists looking for digital primary resources representing world history and cultures will be excited to learn about a growing collection of significant, multilingual resources accessible through the World Digital Library.

The Common Core offers a uniform, nationwide measure of where our students are and where they need to be, and Victor's Tools for Learning feature this month provides you with a descriptive list of companies that can help you get started.

Worried about the Common Core State Standards? If you are a teacher, you don't have to be. Granted, it will take time and effort to adapt your teaching plans to meet these standards. But there are a lot of tools to help you do it, available right now on the web.

The collection brings to life the experiences of international movie-goers from Tokyo to Amsterdam and New York City to Paris, enabling students and scholars to study original newsreels of firsthand from the World War II era and beyond.

A digital badge program that fosters project-based learning, Smithsonian Quests are intended to inspire students to explore their own ideas and interests online, in school, at home and across the nation. The quests connect and reward learners of different ages and in different regions as they learn through discovery and collaboration.

The Follett Challenge will award $200,000 worth of Follett products and services to six winning schools, and also provide educators with a platform to show off their innovative teaching programs to the world through traditional and social media.

WriteToLearn now includes the Reading Maturity Metric (RMM), offering 30 percent improvement over previous readability formulas. RMM has been added to the nearly 1,000 informational reading passages, along with Common Core State Standards' text complexity grade bands.

Priced at $10.66, Shmoop's materials open views on literature, which even well-seasoned teachers may have not considered. The affordable guides include — among other helpful hints — detailed activity ideas, essays on how to tackle the toughest aspects of each book, and potential essay and discussion questions.

Recent acquisitions of learning technology companies such as Archipelago Learning and Educational Options helped prepare PLATO Learning for its transition to Edmentum. The company has expanded beyond the PLATO Learning product brand to include a comprehensive portfolio of award-winning, multi-platform learning technologies.

National Geographic: People, Animals, and the World includes a variety of content such as full-text books on travel, science & technology, history, the environment and animals; videos covering such topics as the Islamic world, alternative energy and even the lifestyle of beluga whales; more than 650 maps; 600 downloadable National Geographic images; and the National Geographic Traveler magazine from 2010 - present.

Khan Academy is a collection of more than 3,500 short instructional videos that provide learning activities in the areas of math, science, computer science, finance, economics, humanities, and test prep.

Globaloria is a social learning network that enables students to develop STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) knowledge and job skills through game design. It includes a set of simple examples, tutorials, and simulations in a customizable, 1-year curriculum.

In this Tools for Learning feature, Victor explores some of the technologies, tools, and platforms that will enable you to succeed in implementing the new flipped classroom teaching and learning model.

For January 1, 2013: IXL Math is a site for all ages that allows students to practice math skills. Problems are organized by grade level, timed, and scored. If a problem is missed, an explanation is provided to help the student understand the concept and continue.

A firm believer in the flipped classroom model, librarian Pat Semple has developed a set of tools that allows her to optimize her time by "flipping" what are traditionally viewed as classroom tasks (lectures) with what are traditionally viewed as homework tasks (researching and writing).

For December 15, 2012: The Lincoln Institute, a project of The Lehrman Institute, has produced several sites devoted to the study of Abraham Lincoln. Of particular interest to teachers is Abraham Lincoln's Classroom that features Lincoln's Daily Story, Quote of the Day, Quiz of the Week, Cartoon Corner, and a Library with speeches and timelines.

Designed as a companion to the comprehension suite, the new app gives anytime, anywhere access to interactive, mastery lessons on the four primary components of comprehension - finding facts, making inferences, identifying themes and the "main idea," and learning vocabulary in context.

Spanning 31 chapters and over 1,000 pages, "Core Ideas in Life Science" fully supports the Next Generation Science Standards. Animators, designers, videographers, and producers led by Brian Jerome, Ph.D. used their archive of videos, images, and animations to create this learning tool.

For November 15, 2012: Students looking for science fair projects will find loads ideas at Science Buddies, a non-profit organization that "empowers K-12 students, parents, and teachers to quickly and easily find free project ideas and help in all areas of science from physics to food science and music to microbiology."

The center provides resources aligned with "real world" journalism practices and communications standards such as the Common Core Standards in the United States, and encourages students to develop and showcase their own reporting and journalism skills.

The partnership will enhance Pearson's Online Learning Exchange's overall course offerings by adding a new set of social studies modules designed to maximize learning outcomes through student engagement.

Mary Alice looks at three specific, comprehensive digital collections—Chronicling America, Historic America Newspapers; Today in History; and The Newseum's Global Digital Archives—and shows you how to locate city and state newspaper archives.

With the "Focus on History through Video" feature, each time the site reloads, the user will see a new video in the player, chosen from an editorially picked selection. Clicking on the "Go to Video Gallery" link below the video screen in that feature will take the user to a new gallery of all of the videos in the database.

This new database features a wealth of up-to-date, book-length biographies from Chelsea House, a publisher of biographies in the school and library market, covering a wide range of core-curriculum and high-interest subject categories. All biographies have been updated and shaped for this product, and content is updated weekly.

StudySync is a web-based program of more than 350 classic and contemporary text excerpts from novels. The program is designed to build reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. Texts are tied to common core standards.

Teachers, librarians, media specialists, and others, including students themselves, need resources for accessing and sharing it all. With search, mobile, and social networking, there's a whole lot more help out of the quicksand.

For August 15, 2012: Science teachers looking for supplies and classroom experiments will be delighted with the wealth of resources available at the Steve Spangler Science website. Sign up for the experiment of the week or deal of the day.

Students nationwide were asked to create a short video describing a new innovative solution that would impact an everyday problem, and these budding young scientists rose to the top of their peers due to the scientific ingenuity and inventive thinking demonstrated in their entry videos.

For July 1, 2012: Splash into the London Olympics at Time for Kids. Watch Road to London, a video marking 100 days to the Olympics plus interviews with Olympic and Paralympic legends and hopefuls, and lots more.

For June 15, 2012: Blue Poison Dart frogs and other amphibians are in danger! Visit Amphibian Ark to learn about them, what's killing them, why it matters (Yes, it does!), and what's being done about it.

The companies have aligned two of Curriculum Associates' leading BRIGANCE assessments with the PCI Reading Program to help special education teachers integrate developmentally appropriate reading curriculum with personalized, differentiated instruction for each student in the classroom.

The Liberty Magazine Historical Archive, 1924-1950 is a complete digitization of the entire run of Liberty Magazine, nearly 1,400 issues, and contains over 17,000 fiction and non-fiction articles and thousands of advertisements all in a searchable, full-color format.

LearnZillion is a learning platform that combines video lessons, assessments, and progress reporting with each lesson highlighting a common core standard. Teachers can assign lessons to classes or individuals when remedial or enrichment math work is needed.

Britannica Pathways: Science brings the full weight of Encyclopaedia Britannica's outstanding and extensive resources to bear in this supplemental tool for middle school science instruction. It consists of a guided discussion that helps students form hypotheses, which they research. Then, the hypotheses are checked with basic, multiple-choice quizzes and a follow-up activity.

Carolyn Foote, our newest columnist, recently attended the South by Southwest Education Conference in Austin, Texas, where she was intrigued by the ideas of author and game designer Jane McGonigal. That got Carolyn thinking about the emotional benefit we get from game-playing.

For May 1, 2012: Find treasure caches and solve problems by using a GPS with your students. Teachers, parents, and students will be able to gather many ideas for their GPS trek by visiting Geocaching with Kids.

For April 1, 2012: Recently, Cyberbee's search for information about fossil identification led him to neoK12. It offers a large collection of free videos and pictures on nearly every subject for grades K-12.

For March 15, 2012: "A free world-class education for anyone anywhere." That's the mission of Khan Academy featured on 60 Minutes. It is a place where students can go to view over 3,000 tutorials in many subject areas on many levels.

"Kids these days. They're in the zone," says Victor Rivero. It's a media-saturation zone he's talking about, owing to the device-saturation that's keeping kids perpetually connected. Educators must offer guidance so kids can navigate through this zone, for reasons of safety, security, and efficacy. Victor proffers the tools that can help.

The personalized literacy environment that provides access to a large integrated library of digital books with multimedia supports is now available on Kindle Fire. myON reader users can securely login through myON.com and have full access to the platform using the Amazon tablet.

For February 15, 2012: Using diaries, newspapers, manuscripts, and other primary source material, Hearts at Home: Southern Women in the Civil War, a University of Virginia Library website, presents a composite sketch of southern women in the Civil War.

The new editions of the product, SmartMath Practice and SmartMath Practice Plus, both priced lower than the premium edition, provide a greater range of options for schools to choose from with regard to administrative and assessment features.

Wordly Wise 3000 Online will provide all students with the same direct academic vocabulary instruction as the print edition, in a dynamic and interactive online format. Full audio support and immediate feedback make the program ideal for struggling readers and English language learners.

Under the agreement, Gale will carry an online archive of more than 100 years of National Geographic magazine. Available to libraries this spring, National Geographic Magazine Archive, 1888-1994 will include all issues of the magazine in a fully searchable and intuitive interface.

The new courses from ASCD support educators implementing Common Core State Standards. Three support implementation of new math standards; four subject-based courses focus on supporting educators in integrating the new literacy standards into science, history/social studies, English language arts, and mathematics lessons.

A learning management system (LMS) is the Holy Grail of education: an online system to manage it all. In this month's Tools for Learning feature, writer Victor Rivero names a range of companies that have ventured into this territory, along with the products and services they offer.

The new Pre-Algebra section starts with the most basic fundamentals and focuses on making algebra fun, easy and - for the most part - painless. The section provides a number of worksheets and quizzes designed to steer even the most fervent algebra-hater gently and comfortably through the learning process.

The bundle - which gives students, including those with learning disabilities, a way to visually express what they've learned across curriculum - incorporates the recently announced Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 and Adobe Premiere Elements 10 software, as well as Adobe Acrobat X Pro.

After extensive user analysis and market feedback, the interface for Gale's online ebook platform has been overhauled with improved navigation and organization, and a vibrant and engaging display to draw in students, researchers, professionals and general readers, the announcement states.

MyGovernment is an online subscription-based resource that provides essential information on United States elected officials, candidates and their key issues, and information on how our government functions.

Among the key platform enhancements are iPad compatibility, a redesigned interface with improved navigation, a new video player, special collections for key producers, improved search and browse options, and new features for account administrators, including free MARC records for every video.

Grolier Online is a re-engineered, redesigned version of this web-based, subscription with new content and digital research tools. It tailors content for each user with an enhanced search engine that enables access to articles, maps, and videos that are adjustable to various reading levels.

Lexia Reading 8.0 provides a complete technology-based reading curriculum. It provides the needed practice, additional paper-based instruction, and skills practice to enable students to learn to read. Lexia Reading offers students a reading program that provides intensive time on task, with focused activities, scaffolding, and branching. It immediately assesses and reports to teachers exactly how each student is progressing.

Mary Alice notes that local museums, libraries, businesses, and passionate volunteers are digitizing primary resources and providing other digital content through processes once only affordable or possible by larger entities.

The textbook is evolving, to say the least. Stephen is excited by the opportunities this presents for educators. So this month's column explores the opportunity to enhance a learner's experience and success with next-generation textbooks.

For November 1, 2011: This year marks the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War. The National Portrait Gallery's CivilWar@Smithsonian features a wide array of primary sources to help you teach and commemorate the event.

The new company provides one-to-one instruction from highly-experienced tutors in subjects ranging from general academic writing to college admissions essay help and even novel and screenplay writing, according to the announcement.

Focused on providing fun and engaging tools to classrooms and homes, these joint efforts include components like supplemental family activities, K-12 curriculum programs, interactive classroom lessons and more.

The game is designed to help kids in grades 1-6 build an understanding of geometry. Shapescape joins Sokikom's three other games: Frachine, which focuses on fractions, decimals and percents; Opirate, which emphasizes mathematic operations and algebra; and Treeching, which concentrates on the principles of measurement, algebra, patterns, time and money.

Through the Challenge, students are invited to team up with classmates under teacher/mentors to solve environmental problems in their school (grades K-5), community (grades 6-8) and world (grades 9-12).

New features enable students to more easily produce meaningful images, professional-looking movies, and digital stories that combine photos and videos in creative ways. Teacher resources, including step-by-step tutorials and ready-to-use lessons for incorporating the software into classroom learning, are available online at the free Adobe Education Exchange.

The MyLexia App helps teachers recognize which students are struggling, grouping students by specific skills for individual or small group instruction. As students complete each skill level, the MyLexia App helps celebrate student progress by notifying teachers when students have earned a certificate of achievement, which can then be emailed to parents or sent to a wireless printer.

The new DVD series, intended to teach students about healthy living and essential nutrition topics using a unique and humorous approach, provides supplemental curriculum correlated to nutrition guidelines and standards.

Bookstream makes it easy for educators to hop on the internet, upload ebooks and share them with students for anytime reading, the announcement states. It was designed to help educators comply with IDEA 2004 (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) that require schools to deliver core curriculum in accessible formats to support students with disabilities.

Quizlet is a flashcards and study games website offered in multiple languages, with visuals and voice in some languages. All flashcards are user-generated. Quizlet contains elements of social networking to promote learning through groups and a blog.

Room 21 is an online learning management system designed to bring education into the 21st century. Students take online classes, and teachers design lessons to capture the spirit of 21st-century learning. Designed as a social learning platform, Room 21 provides tools for parents, students, principals, and teachers to collaborate, and it supports comprehensive skills needed to meet the challenges of the Common Core State Standards.

The e-everything revolution charges ahead in the education realm. This month, Victor Rivero reprises and updates the discussion he started last year in his article "E Is for Explosion: E-Readers, Etextbooks, Econtent, Elearning, E-Everything."

For September 1, 2011: As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the 9/11 Memorial Teach and Learn website can help teachers looking for ways to include these events into their classroom curriculum.

The International Association of School Librarianship (ISLM) offers ideas for taking your classroom global. An interesting one we just got word of, among several projects for International School Library Month, is ISLM's Skype Project.

The company has upgraded its Discovery Education streaming service with a variety of new resources, more efficient navigation and a free, three-week series of webinars to help educators explore how to incorporate the digital resources into their instruction.

The new Math Concepts activities provide practice with number sense; basic operations and order of operations; geometry and spatial sense; graphing and managing data; probability; measurement; algebra, patterning, and logic; and fraction concepts.

The new version of the technology-based reading curriculum is designed to predict student performance on year-end, grade-level assessments and offers prescriptive recommendations for the intensity of instruction needed to improve each student's performance.

The eLibrary feature program is a keyword search tutorial system that gives students access to more than 4,600 Common Core state standard aligned lessons (language arts, math, science, social studies, and electives) for grades 6-12.

Shmoop's Literature Guides and Biographies are written by Ph.D. students from Stanford, Harvard, UC Berkley, and other top universities. Shmoop is known for its sense of humor and knack for pop culture. For example, Shmoop introduces students to The Great Gatsby by comparing the novel to the television shows "Real Housewives" and "The Sopranos."

In addition to a rich public media library, PBS LearningMedia has content contributed from other publicly funded organizations, including the National Archives, the Library of Congress and NPR, as well as content funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Education, to deliver thousands of resources for use in the classroom and with home-schoolers.

Marydee Ojala, editor of Information Today, Inc.'s ONLINE magazine, posted a NewsBreak recently on Cengage's acquisition of a component of National Geographic that will be of interest to the K-12 community.

For June 15, 2011: If there's one near you, visiting a prairie remnant makes a great field trip. For background, learn about the prairie regions of Ohio, native plants, and Making a Prairie Garden from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Ohio Prairies website.

Through a new initiative, called myWorld TakingITGlobal, educators have immediate access to digitally driven content that makes global collaboration a reality for America's middle schoolers with the click of a mouse, according to the announcement.

The new mobile download for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch is aligned with the school curriculum and designed for ages 8-12, though, says the announcement, even the youngest and most ophidiophobic kids can enjoy it.

TheGreenInterview.com will be providing Gale with video interviews covering a range of issues connected to our planet, humans on earth, damage to our ecosystem, alternative development ideas, sustainability, and more.

The Environmental Public Health (EPH) collection offers classroom-ready assets for middle and high school students that look at how researchers, communities, and policy makers are working to address health issues resulting from toxins and other factors in our environment.

The Siemens Foundation, Discovery Education, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), and the College Board have named the 24 middle school and 24 high school state finalists in the third annual Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge.

The three brands are running two summer reading challenges designed to be entertaining and easy enough to fit into every family's busy summer schedule. Both challenges, the Scholastic Summer Challenge and the iVillage PBS KIDS Summer Reading Community Challenge, will be available through www.SummerReadingCentral.com.

For May 1, 2011: Help students hone their math skills with these entertaining games at MathNook. You can choose the level that meets the needs of your students, from basic computation to advanced equations.

An informal survey of superintendents, supervisors, principals and teachers who attended the recent ASCD Annual Conference in San Francisco, Calif., suggests that educators feel they lack the data and instructional tools to deliver effective learning.

To provide schools and districts with a more comprehensive eLearning program model for students, the e2020 Inc., Common Core Standards alignment process is manually configured, resulting in more accurate and granular results.

New on-demand, video-based modules are available that are designed to deepen teacher knowledge of global climate and earth system change, while providing a resource that can also be used with students.

The four new titles, Civil Engineering and Architecture, Aerospace Engineering: From the Ground Up, Principles of Engineering and Digital Electronics, provide a wealth of content and resources to enhance PLTW's middle and high school STEM curriculum.

This latest version of Lexia's software offers teachers and administrators an enhanced progress monitoring functionality to help support instructional strategies including Response to Intervention (RTI).

Ten finalists will be selected to receive an all-expense paid trip to the 3M Innovation Center in St. Paul, Minn. to compete in the final challenge in October, 2011. The winner will receive $25,000 and the title of "America's Top Young Scientist."

The StudySync program combines classic and modern texts, digital media, mobile technology, and social networking designed to inspire students to achieve higher levels of critical thinking and academic collaboration.

For February 1, 2011: Enhance your high school physics lessons with the information and video demonstrations from HyperPhysics, an award winning site hosted by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Georgia State University.

Science Power from World Book Classroom is an interactive program that brings science alive for students. It includes multimedia, teacher guides and tests for each lesson. Lessons can be presented to whole groups, small groups, or individuals.

Online. Blended. Mobile. 21 st-century. Collaborative. Project-based. Any way you label it, learning is changing. We're now settling into an exciting new paradigm of connected, engaged learning. To get a sense of all this, take a look at the sites, services, and resources we've noted right here in this article.

For January 1, 2011: The Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, from the Clackamas County (Oregon) Heritage Partners, brings history alive through reenactments, videos, and print material. Historical information about the role of black pioneers in the settlement of Oregon is very informative.

For December 15, 2010: Ready to spark scientific minds with some fun activities? Then, visit the Science Kids website, where you will find experiments on a variety of topics such as electricity, aerodynamics, and chemical reactions.

Each edition of the Discovery Education Science Techbook series is built from the ground up to address individual state standards and is intended to serve as the new primary instructional resource for Indiana and Louisiana elementary and middle schools.

"Mission US" is a new series of free online games designed to let middle school students learn and "live" history. The first game mission, "For Crown or Colony?," focuses on events leading up to the American Revolution.

Charles Doe reviews TimeMAPS, a money management and life skills program, a complete course or a supplement, intended to teach "personal finance literacy" defined as the knowledge needed to make responsible financial decisions.

There's a quiet—or not so quiet—shift happening in school libraries across America. The social media revolution—reflected in all manner of shiny iPhone apps, blogs, Nings, Facebook pages, and other social networking tools, sites, and platforms—is real, and it's running like a loud line of students straight through the stacks, into the common areas, taking a sharp turn, and heading right on up to the teacher librarian/media specialist's desk. Are you ready for it? In this article, Victor Rivero addresses issues, answers, and resources to help.

The bundle includes the recently announced Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 and Adobe Premiere Elements 9 software, as well as Adobe Acrobat X. Adobe Contribute CS5 and Adobe Soundbooth CS5 software are also included in the collection.

SCAN challenges students to examine issues from different points of view using authentic scenarios and role-playing. The online tool includes built-in steps designed to focus online and in-classroom discussions.

For October 15, 2010: To students who think the field of physics is "mired with images of weird old men electrocuting themselves, strange equations, esoteric concepts, indecipherable books, etc.," the creators of the Fear of Physics website say: "NO WAY. Give it a chance!"

The newly produced Series Books Curriculum Resource Center includes hours of original audio interviews with popular series authors and hundreds of online resources to support the enjoyment of more than 40 favorite series—including fantasy, mystery, realistic fiction, and biography.

For September 15, 2010: Parents, kids, and teens will discover a wealth of information reviewed by medical and health professionals at the KidsHealth website, from the Nemours Foundation's Center for Children's Health Media.

With almost 200 literacy skills embedded in curriculum packs for elementary, middle and high school students, the highly interactive DimensionL instructional software introduces and reinforces such topics as language conventions, parts of speech, reading and writing processes, spelling, and vocabulary.

The interactive ebook, designed to give students the information they need to overcome difficulties encountered while working on homework or assignment problems, provides them the opportunity to review exactly the concept or technique they are struggling with, work through an example, practice, and then continue with their homework.

For September 1, 2010: Constitution Day is coming up, and the Library of Congress provides excellent related resources for teachers through its Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention web page.

One of the most challenging areas in education today is helping students navigate through the ever-increasing world of information. There are many estimates out there on how fast the internet is growing, but everyone agrees it is the fastest-growing technology humankind has ever created! To get a handle on this 21st-century repository of information, librarians, teachers, and students need to harness the power and flexibility of the more-powerful, flexible, and varied online tools being developed … tools that can help them find, evaluate, and organize the megaloads of information out there. This applies not only to high school students but to younger students as well.

In this article, Victor Rivero draws on educators' and educational technology product developers' thinking that he picked up during a visit to this summer's ISTE conference. Victor cruised the show, talking with attendees and presenters, as well as with representatives from organizations such as the Partnership for 21st-Century Skills and The Software & Information Industry Association, to get their opinions on 21st century education.

For August 1, 2010: Discover history in your own backyard by exploring a local cemetery, with the help of the website The Cemetery: History Written in Stone. Cemeteries are great primary sources, with lots more than dates and names.

A new and improved version of Facts On File's World Atlas, this reference site takes a global approach to facilitate the study of countries, places, peoples, and geography concepts and skills, according to the announcement.

The core subject map—the result of a collaboration between P21 and leading art, dance, music, theater, and visual arts associations—provides first-of-their-kind classroom examples of integrating the 'four Cs' into arts courses.

For July 15, 2010: Spies are in the news, so visit the International Spy Museum if you're in Washington, D.C. this summer! Next best thing? Hit their International Spy Museum website! Be watching over your shoulder, though.

The 47 semifinalists were selected based on their science communication skills exhibited in a short video explaining the science behind issues millions of Americans face in everyday life, including preventing the spread of germs, ensuring food safety and sun protection.

This month, Mary Alice offers advice and discusses tools, such as Edmodo and VoiceThread, that will help you and your students do lots more than they have in the past with primary source materials they have gathered.

For this story, Victor researched and describes a couple of real-life ways in which curriculum content is moving in the direction of an all-electronic format. He looks first at a school district's move to acquire interactive, digital textbooks from publishers in place of traditional paper-based books. Then he discusses Discovery Education's adaptation of its rich content into digital "basal textbook" format—but "basal textbooks" like you've never seen before!

In "E Is for Explosion …" Victor Rivero sets the scene with an overview of recent happenings in the world of e-reading devices as well as etexts, then focuses in on more than 15 kinds of electronic texts and content and their producers/providers.

Conceived and developed in conjunction with Phunware, the U.S. Geography by Discovery Education App delivers a fun and educational solution to engage students in learning about United States geography, according to the announcement.

The new pilot program combines more than 20,000 ebooks from leading publishers under a simultaneous, multi-user access subscription model; free access for local public high schools; do-it-yourself epublishing tools; and complimentary marketing services.

Referencia Latina is a definitive general reference resource for the rapidly growing native Spanish-speaking population in the United States covering issues in Latin America and Spain, as well as US and global affairs.

In this age of technology-enabled openness, how much protecting is too much? And, going further, if our students are completely isolated from the benefits of the information age, will they ever learn? In this month's Tools for Learning feature, Victor Rivero examines some products, services, and solutions that address the question "How can our students stay safe and secure while simultaneously getting access to rich learning resources—and continue to fall in love with learning?"

Subscription web services for education offer a fascinating variety of products and approaches for teachers, parents, students, and school systems. Some services provide grade book and student information systems, others offer assessment and learning management platforms, and some feature classroom resources including lesson plans, videos, digital tools, activities, and games. This article takes a look at a representative sampling of subscription-based websites that are appropriate for use in K-12 classrooms.

Alice Kurtz discusses "Lost Nation: The Ioway," an interactive DVD that allows students to explore the plight of one tribe of Native Americans as Europeans moved westward across the North American continent.

For May 1, 2010: The huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a news maker that can be turned into a quick inquiry lesson for students. Try a lesson that Cyberbee has used with teachers and students to think about the best way to clean-up an oil spill. Then, visit NOAA's National Ocean Service website page.

Lexile measures will be assigned specifically for content in World Book Student and World Book Discover, designed for middle- and high-school students; World Book Kids, designed for elementary-school students; and the Early World of Learning site for preschoolers and emerging readers in the primary grades.

The NAMTC Digital Marketplace is powered by the EduTone Xchange platform, enabling education service agencies to purchase, provision, and access on demand the web-based applications and content offered in the Digital Marketplace.

Designed by special educators and based on visual learning theory, the Literacy Suite is designed to build reading, writing, and science skills by combining students' own images, videos, and photos with rich learning content.

Alice Kurtz reviews The Historian's Apprentice, a social studies program that enables students to act as historians as they follow a protocol for examining primary and secondary sources to answer complex questions from American history.

The web-based ST Math: K-5 Integrated Instructional System includes enhanced math content from MIND's ST Math software, as well as new features for math teaching and learning, assessment, and reporting.

Presented by a cadre of nationally known speakers with more than 20 years of product experience, Capstone's professional development program incorporates best practices with research-based products on a range of dynamic topics.

For March 1, 2010: Through a collaboration of several federal government agencies, at the Women's History Month for Teachers website, teachers are presented with a variety of primary source materials to use in their classrooms.

The latest version of the 22-volume encyclopedia includes thousands of new and revised articles across all disciplines and topics. The World Book Web, World Book's online information portal, includes reference collections which offer all the articles in the print edition as well as thousands more from World Book's contributors.

Lexia Learning Systems has expanded its offering of "Lexia Lessons" and "Lexia Skill Builders" as a part of its Lexia Reading program. The program includes targeted practice, embedded assessment, scripted lesson plans, and offline practice to help students at all reading levels achieve proficiency.

For February 1, 2010: Want to create a list of high-quality children's literature or find out if a book has won an award? Search librarian Lisa Bartle's Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature.

From the mechanics of writing and grammar to style and research, the Writer's Reference Center online covers the fundamentals of quality writing and provides vocabulary-building reference dictionaries.

The companies have partnered to create the Heinle Community, intended as a safe and secure virtual workspace designed for learners to practice English through collaboration on projects in an authentic learning environment.

In a year's time, Charlie Doe's district has placed interactive whiteboards in about 30% of their elementary classrooms and, in doing so, has made interactive whiteboard technology the envy of the district. That sparked his interest, so for this roundup, he takes a brief look at several products that offer a variety of approaches, from full whiteboards to equipment that makes a standard dry-erase whiteboard become interactive.

Educators have begun to shun the monolithic basal approach to teaching reading, opting for a more robust mix of specialized print and technology-based resources that provide intensive, dynamic, motivating methods that children embrace and enjoy. These print and technology tools must use student data as a cornerstone of an approach that intensifies and individualizes instruction. Find out more from Lexia Learning's Bob McCabe.

Podcasting, a morph of the words "iPod" and "broadcast," was first coined by U.K. journalist Ben Hammersley. (In fact, it was declared to be 2005's Word of the Year by The New Oxford American Dictionary, edging out both "Sudoku" and "trans fat" for the philological nod.) The digital medium quickly found its way into the classroom, and why not? After all, it's free, easy, and accessible, and it has the ability to power up education for students from kindergarten to college.

According to the SIIA's Vision K-20 survey, the lowest level for its Five Measures of Progress is in the use of technology-based assessment tools, with an average score of just 46%. Clearly, there's room for improvement! And since knowing more about these tools is a good first step to using them to your advantage, Victor Rivero brings you a sampling of some of the more recent excellent products and services you may find useful when it comes to gaining much-needed assistance with assessment.

There is an economical way to introduce videoconferencing that involves inexpensive laptop computers and programs such as iChat, Skype, and ooVoo. A technology integration plan shared by a few pioneering districts in the author's area proves this point. Through it, schools have been able to make a serious commitment to the "new wave" of interactive technology at a minimal cost.

Available for purchase in January 2010, Interactive Science enables middle school students to read, write, draw, graph, and self-assess all in one place, actively engaging students with real-world content.

Sonja Plummer-Morgan and Lisa Neal-Shaw are public librarians from Maine who have explored the use of virtual worlds with very young—and not-so-very young—children. They have found sites very helpful in encouraging curiosity and enabling tech-learning behaviors such as online communication, collaboration, composition, traditional as well as 21st-century literacies, and more, to the extent that we wanted to share their insights with our readers in K–12 education settings.

Twitter, Blogger, Facebook, MySpace, Ning: How do we help our students learn the social skills needed to understand what it really means to live and participate in a global community? How do we incorporate this into our schools and classrooms? How do we keep ourselves and our students safe? Social networking sites are mainstream media for many tweens, teens, and adults. There are even social networking sites that attract kids as young as 5 years old. This is the reality of the world we live in, and schools should reflect this reality.

The collection includes Photoshop Elements 8 and Premiere Elements 8 to help educators enhance teaching and learning of digital literacy skills, and now offers netbook compatibility support for Photoshop Elements 8 (Windows) and Adobe Photoshop Elements for the Mac platform.

The latest edition of the collection development resource for school libraries lists over 8,000 recommended books, 2,000 more than the previous edition. It also features "short list" indicators for the "most highly recommended" works and more specific grade levels indicators than the previous edition.

Collaboration is one of the defining characteristics of the 21st century, but many educators are still searching for ways to embrace this idea in their schools. Some technologies facilitate the creation of a collaborative learning environment better than others, but there are a number of technology tools that can lead to collaborative student and teacher engagement while also addressing budgetary and infrastructure issues. This article offers suggestions for overcoming barriers using simple tools that foster complex thinking.

For August 15, 2009: Explore the wonders of astronomy at the Eyes on the Sky, Feet on the Ground website from the Smithsonian Institution through a variety of activities designed for elementary teachers and students.

The JourneyEd Academic eStore Network (AEN) provides access to more than 15,000 online stores offering thousands of top-tier software and technology products—including programs published by Microsoft and Adobe—at discounts of up to 85% of retail prices to verified education buyers.

Sharing knowledge: In some form or another, it’s why most educators went into teaching in the first place. But traditional instructional materials don’t lend themselves to sharing between educators. New technologies now allow teachers to share and collaborate locally and globally in ways that generations past could never have imagined. These tools signal what may grow to be true disruptive change in how schools acquire and disseminate instructional and professional development resources. The nonprofit Curriki.org (www.curriki.org) is a 3-year-old organization that offers a large collection of free and open source content and collaboration tools.

Designed for at-risk middle and high school students, the new online diagnostic-prescriptive remediation service delivers a cycle of quizzes followed by personalized review and practice to help students catch up in math.

The collection of web-delivered animated movies, quizzes, and activities is intended to help foster discussion of timely topics to help children understand the financial issues facing the nation and the world today.

Tween's program is designed specifically for the sixth through eighth grade. Included are such skills as binder organization, using a planner, organizing a homework space, using a rubric, self-advocacy for middle school, remembering daily responsibilities, correcting poor homework habits, long term project management, and understanding grade averaging.

Developed through a partnership with Montgomery (Md.) College's Computer Gaming and Simulation program and designed in cooperation with NOAA's National Estuarine Research Reserve System for students at the fourth through seventh grade level, "WaterLife: Where Rivers Meet the Sea" provides science instruction through a series of challenges and animations.

“Inspiring Middle School Literacy: Reading and Writing in Science and History” is the first collection on Teachers’ Domain that focuses exclusively on building literacy skills across content areas. It is comprised of interactive activities that middle school teachers can use to supplement their science, social studies, or language arts curriculum.

Using the immersive characteristics of digital games, Labyrinth blends a storyline with multi-level puzzle play to build pre-algebra skills in several core areas: proportions - fractions and ratios; variables and equations; and numbers and operations.

The print-on-demand library of thousands of activities across the PreK–6+ school curriculum marks its third year by offering school-site subscriptions that provide educators with the resources they need to support the varied needs of today’s students.

In an effort to foster the development of the next generation of scientists, Discovery Education and 3M have teamed up again to reward students for their science acumen and curiosity, while encouraging them to share that passion by creatively communicating their findings.

Energy is an essential and, at times, a controversial subject. It is important that students learn about energy sources and the impact they have in their own lives, and Linda Joseph's Cyberbee guides you this month to web resources to help them do just that.

There are many approaches—and many acronyms—related to ESL studies. Whichever approach or aspect is being considered, ESL resources have increased enormously with the introduction of computer and related electronic technologies. Charles Doe’s article offers some examples of the many fine possibilities available, with a mention of some of their more interesting features.

For January 1, 2009: Need fast facts about energy sources, how they were/are formed, and their environmental impact? Start out at the federal government’s Energy Information Administration EIA Energy Kids Page.

Today’s students are truly digital learners. Outside of school they are texting, using cell phones, creating social networks on the internet, and playing interactive games online; they often do all of these things at the same time—multitasking. They expect to use some of these tools when they are in school. Teachers can create new learning opportunities for students and turn classrooms into the 21st-century global classroom when they integrate technology into the learning environment. Read on to learn from Sheila Gersh just how teachers can begin to create such environments.

H.W. Wilson announced the electronic and print publication of the “Tenth Book of Junior Authors & Illustrators,” the newest volume in the series designed to acquaint readers with the creators of outstanding young adult and children’s books.

Galeschools.com is hosting Monster Vote 2008, an exercise designed to help students understand the election process and a contest offering one lucky class a chance to win a set of Monsters books from KidHaven Press.

The American Association of School Librarians and the Children’s Book Council released the names of the contributors selected for the AASL Knowledge Quest journal’s “Meet the Author/Illustrator” column during the 2008-2009 school year.

The “Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge” encourages students to create "green solutions"; prizes include regional and national recognition, cash, and an appearance on Discovery's Planet Green television network.

For September 15, 2008: Learn about Henry David Thoreau and his writings at The Thoreau Reader, a comprehensive website featuring online versions of many of his books and lots of links and annotations about his literary works.

With the 2008 election upon us, there are many websites analyzing the personal attributes and platforms of the candidates as well as examining the political process for electing a president. The news media provides all sorts of information from facts to commentary with a dose of speculation by an array of "expert" panelists. For better or worse, YouTube and blogs allow unfettered participation by individuals. It is more important than ever that your students learn to be discerning readers when researching these sources. CyberBee has selected a variety of places to explore and use with your students.

In the July/August issue of MMIS, Kelly Czarnecki started her "tour of the possibilities" of using virtual environments in K-12 education with a look at two projects based on/in Teen Second Life—Science in Second Life, and Suffern Middle School in Second Life. Here's the rest of the tour, visting Whyville, the River City Project, Quest Atlantis, and McClarin's Adventures.

The 2007 edition of the Horizon Report by the New Media Consortium and the Educause Learning Initiative predicted that in 2 to 3 years, virtual worlds will greatly impact teaching, learning, and creative expression. These scalable and highly creative environments are being used by educators all over the country in a variety of settings and in a variety of ways. This article offers a look at projects using virtual worlds that are currently “happening” in K–12 schools, what we’re learning from them, and what we can continue to learn by charging full steam ahead with these fascinating educational tools.

Bookshare.org and Don Johnston, Inc. are participating in a partnership to provide qualified print disabled students with a free text reader to access electronic books from the Bookshare.org library, beginning in September 2008.

For March 1, 2008: If you are looking for information on the hot topic of biotechnology, for an annotated list of books about agriculture, or if you just need to know the date for National Cream Puff Day or International Pickles Week (!), then look no further than the American Farm Bureau Foundation's Educating for Agriculture website.

Geocaching, using GPS technology, is loads of fun, and it offers lots of educational opportunities as well. Yes, even in the media center. Media specialists are good at making curricular connections, and, says Mary Alice Anderson, the curriculum connections with geocaching are easy to see. Don't believe it?? Read and learn.

With agricultural commodities so readily accessible in the U.S., it is easy to forget how the baked ham, green beans, pineapple, and rolls with butter arrive on the dinner plate in some countries, but not in others. Learning about agricultural practices, economics, and the importance of farming will go a long way in helping students understand one aspect of global interdependence. Prepare your students for a trip to a working farm by visiting these websites, all vetted by Cyberbee, aka longtime MMIS columnist and educator Linda Joseph.

The MIND Research Institute’s visual math courseware programs for grades K-12 are now available in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

To help celebrate the recently announced ALA Awards (Newbery, Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, and others), Teachingbooks.net has announced it is offering free access to a great batch of original short movies and readings by the award winners.

Reinventing Project Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age offers educators a practical guide for maximizing the benefits of project-based learning in today’s technology-rich learning environment.

Projects should be designed to increase knowledge of scientific phenomena and provide opportunities for the application of that knowledge to environmental issues relevant to the students. Approximately $4 million in grants will be awarded.

Do you still remember the thrill of receiving a summer postcard from your teacher? How exciting it was to open the mailbox and find that personal piece of mail waiting—and to realize that your teacher was thinking of you. Perhaps the photograph on the face of the card led you to the encyclopedia to learn more about a particular place, while a handwritten line or two described a cultural experience, unusual food, or new language. Travel postcards, sent by thoughtful teachers over the years, have broadened the world of many a child. Yesterday’s postcards have gone high-tech. Weblogs, or blogs, enable today’s teachers to send a new kind of post, sharing their travel experiences as they unfold. Blogs provide an up-to-the-minute opportunity for teachers to continue to educate their students through semester breaks, to interact with their school communities, and to share experiences and locales that encourage understanding of the broader world. And those 21st century postcards come complete with the ability to upload and publish journal entries, photos, slideshows, audio, video, and educational links.

The encyclopedia includes access to The World Book Web, World Book's suite of online publications, featuring all the articles in the print edition as well as thousands more from World Book's contributors and access to additional resources.

The Decision ’08 resource, designed specifically for classroom instruction, offers up-to-the-minute presidential election news through a video-on-demand user interface, allowing teachers to customize their lesson plans with compelling and relevant content to bring the election process and political issues to life, according to the announcement.

With end-of-grade, back-to-basics, multiple-choice testing for the masses and mechanical instruction methods, there’s growing concern that children are not learning to problem solve as much as they are mastering memorization of isolated facts in order to answer test questions. Yet, when they get home from school, children eagerly devour new information and concepts through the virtual environments of video games. In what I call a stealth-learning environment, children develop skills that connect and manipulate information in the virtual worlds of video games without really knowing that they’re learning.

ABC-CLIO expands its free “History and the Headlines” online resources with “Double Victory—Minorities and Women During World War II,” material designed to support the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick PBS/WETA documentary, “The War.”

The Sally Ride Science blog features a series of science-themed entries designed to help elementary and middle school teachers illustrate real-world applications of science concepts and spark classroom discussions.

In this article, Part 5 of his series of reviews, Robert Congleton continues his conversations with representatives of vendors--in this case, ePals, LearningExpress, and Teen Health & Wellness--about how they are addressing the growing K–12 classroom reliance on electronic resources, the products they currently offer, and what new resources they plan to release in the near future. The article also describes updates on enhancements and new products that have been released in the last year by five of the vendors previously reviewed in this series: Gale, Greenwood Electronic Media, TeachingBooks.net, World Book, Grolier Online/Scholastic, Inc.

The “social networking” generation is writing, and this writing is important to them. Schools must find a way to merge these informal writing activities with the writing activities found in classrooms. It’s possible that the use of social networking technologies with classroom writing programs could make writing in school interesting enough to motivate students to tackle the more formal writing needed for college, business, and other activities in adult life. Charles Doe's latest "Look At ... " article examines some of the software and Webware possibilities inspired by social computing as well as some of the newer computer- and Internet-based writing tools.

A key feature of World Book Advanced is its integrated content, allowing students to search across a vast collection of primary source documents, e-books, and encyclopedia articles as well as multimedia elements, editor-selected Web sites, current magazine selections, and more.

ST Math Algebra Readiness, for students in grades 6 to 8, takes a building-block approach to providing mathematical problems and exercises aligned to the foundational math concepts and skills needed to learn algebra.

This is the first in SafeSchools’ Online Safety Series, which covers the various means of communication as well as the growing dangers that can entrap students when they’re online, including cyberbullying, predators, and threats of violence.

The first new author program features an interview with British writer and illustrator Lauren Child, the creator of the Clarice Bean books, the Charlie and Lola series, “The Princess and the Pea,” and “Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Book,” among others.

Podcasting is emerging as one of those technological diamonds in the rough that has the potential to reshape the way we look at the Internet, mass media, and ourselves. With a multimedia computer, easy-to-use recording software, and some storage space on the Internet, everyone can build a podcasting production center of their very own. Podcasting is headed for a classroom near you, so read Dan Schmit's feature to be ready for it!

Multimedia online technologies now offer an unprecedented ability to enable every student, teacher, and even every family to "meet" the authors of books they are reading. If you have ever seen an author speak or have hosted authors in your school, you have experienced the impact meeting an author has on a personal relationship to a book. It humanizes the book, it reveals the person and personality that created it, and more. This article highlights specific ways you can replicate these personal connections to authors and illustrators by optimizing a variety of multimedia and online technologies.

A team of Canadian educators who are specialists in their content areas worked with Thinkronize to identify and evaluate high quality resources that specifically support Canadian teachers and students.

netTrekker now includes access to Teachers’ Domain, the result of a partnership between Thinkronize, the developer of the netTrekker educational search products, and WGBH Educational Foundation, the producer of Teachers’ Domain.

The folks at the ReadWriteThink Web site—a partnership between the International Reading Association (IRA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the Verizon Foundation—have an excellent collection of resources of their own making, plus links to many more, to use during National American Indian Heritage Month.

Don Johnston, the founder and leader of the multimedia company that bears his name, has written an autobiography designed to inspire struggling students to become self-learning advocates and to take charge of their own learning process.

The CultureGrams report series provides an insider's perspective on the daily life and culture of countries across the globe, including background information on customs, lifestyle, and country-specific recipes.

Cyberbee is positioned this month--Globally Positioned, that is--with resources to help you and your students map trails, find treasure caches, and solve problems by using the Global Positioning System technology made possible by 24 U.S. military satellites orbiting Earth that transmit signals to a GPS receiver.

For October 15, 2006: “You never know where a science fair project will take you.” That’s the philosophy behind the creation of the School Science Fairs Web site! Cyberbee says the site should be your first stop when looking for science fair project ideas.

Educators can now help their students gain a deeper understanding of the world by blending unitedstreaming’s broadband videos on historical, geographical, or other subjects with Google Earth’s cutting-edge geography content.

Criterion v6.2 includes a number of upgrades to ETS’s proprietary e-rater scoring engine, including the ability to detect run-on sentences and missing commas; expanded sentence fragment detection; and analysis and feedback regarding the technical quality of a student’s thesis statement.

MaxData is designed to teach students all aspects of data handling, from the first steps of simple representation of data, to learning database concepts such as fields, field types, records, tables, and filters.

Imbee.com is a blogging site for children ages 8 to 14. What!!??? you're saying. Not safe!! Well, with all the concern over kids posting and publishing to the Web, it's worth reading the EContent article by Jared Bernstein to see how the imbee.com folks create an environment they say is safe even for kids that young. (From Information Today, Inc.’s EContent magazine)

The newly updated unitedstreaming video-on-demand service will include new multimedia assets, live curriculum-based Web seminars led by education technology experts, and hundreds of additional educational video titles.

For June 1, 2006: The USDA's Sci4Kids Web site is a series of stories for students ages 8-13 illustrating the work of the Agriculture Department scientists. Learn how satellites determine where cows Moo-ve (roam) and why that is important, how food might be grown in space, and lots more.

The Summer Reading Buzz site will have cool activities and contests for kids, informative tips and tools for parents, and downloable materials for librarians to make summer reading enjoyable and fun, according to Scholastic.

The Development of the Industrial U.S. Reference Library, published by UXL, covers the history of America during the second half of the 19th century, a time when the country began its march toward the role of the wealthiest and most powerful industrial nation in the world.

Math, computers, and the Internet make a wonderful combination that seems to be producing better, more effective, and more interesting math educational materials every day. Internet technology—driven by speedy DSL access, increasing flexibility of use, and a large (and growing) potential audience—is providing an exciting forum for the development of some really outstanding math resources. Charlie Doe takes a look at the territory in this math roundup.

This month, Cyberbee sets his and your sites on water, streams, and creeks, where your students can experience great adventures. Discover all sorts of creatures and plants that live in this aquatic habitat, investigate the health of the creek and its impact on the overall environment, and lots more. Prepare for your journey by visiting these Web sites for information and lesson ideas.

For April 1, 2006: Each spring when the falcons nest, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources sets up the Ohio Peregrine Falcons site, using a live cam on the 41st floor of the Rhodes Tower in Columbus.

For March 15, 2006: Life re-emerges as we spring into spring! Take frogs, for instance. At the Something Froggy Web site, choose from the Primary (K-3) or the Junior (4-8) version to learn about frogs and their life cycle.

Freedom on the Move, Continuing the March Toward a More Perfect Union offers students a multimedia experience focused on the important historical events associated with the civil rights movement, as well as an exploration of the issues of discrimination, prejudice, and bias.

Linda Joseph's CyberBee this month helps you and your students transform your schoolyard into a launchpad; experiment with aerodynamics, Newton's laws, and Bernoulli's principle; create geometric kites and sleek paper airplanes; measure distances; determine the best flying designs and discover why they were successful; and more ... by guiding you to some terrific kite- and paper-airplane-related math and science Web sites.

The program for the Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC) includes a closing session focused on the Texas Instruments “We Use Math Every Day” initiative, based on the popular CBS television series “NUMB3RS.”

For February 15, 2006: Electric Universe is "a universe of information about electricity, how it affects our lives, and how to harness its power safely." Check out "Louie's Space" and other electrifying spots on the site!

With the Merit Text Talker, all of the passages, questions, answers, tips, and explanations students view on the screen in Merit reading, grammar, and vocabulary improvement programs can be spoken aloud.

For December 15, 2005: At the RIF (Reading is Fundamental) site, the focus in on developing children's as well as family literacy programs. RIF's Reading Planet is full of fun activities that lead the way!

Last week's Internet Scout Project Scout Report gives you the basics on this interesting, charming, and ultimately useful project and literature resource. See what new perspectives it might bring to your students' reading or literature study.

The new Teachers’ Guide provides tutorials, tips, online and print resources, and specific curriculum-based projects in which U.S. teachers can participate to establish school-to-school global interaction on the Internet.

For November 1, 2005: Explore Newton’s Castle, a “stimulating journey into the revelations of Sir Isaac Newton,” where you can learn about his discoveries … and secret life! Learn about color, optical illusions, and lots more ... such as why dogs chase cars! (Did they have cars in Newton's day??)

Databases can inspire novel approaches to creating curriculum. As teachers become familiar with them, their thinking about lesson planning and student research often moves in innovative directions. In this article, Sarah Cooper describes five projects through which librarians can take the lead in helping history and English teachers see the potential of this new world of sources. Included is coverage of database resources from Accessible Archives, Country Watch, EBSCO, Gale, JSTOR, LexisNexis, NewsBank, The OED Online, and ProQuest.

Discovery Health Connection now includes 16 curriculum programs, three Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) Model Programs, correlations to every state’s educational standards, and more than 100 new literacy lessons, according to the announcement.

PLATO Earth and Space Science includes multimedia lessons and activities that use animation, experiments, investigations, video, and audio to bring science concepts to life, according to the announcement.

For September 1, 2005: Just right for the upcoming Constitution and Citizenship Day, Centuries of Citizenship: A Constitutional Timeline introduces key historical events while allowing students to think about the issues.

The very nature of science as an ever-changing discipline requires timely and updated tools to deliver instruction within the science classroom. Technology programs provide the perfect solution to engage today’s students in scientific inquiry. This article covers science software in the categories of standards-driven teaching, simulations, inquiry, and science tools.

In this story, Mike Lambert and Margaret Carpenter, educators at Hong Kong International School, outline a range of approaches that “harness the power of images” in their teaching. Among the article subheads: Digitize ... Then Verbalize; Iconize ... Then They’ll Memorize; Use Visual Prompts to Encourage Creativity and Lateral Thinking. There’s also a sidebar of some brief stories from vendors whose products tap into visual learning.

Pearson Educational Measurement (PEM) will implement a pilot program of online testing for 6th grade English Language Arts and Social Studies tests administered as part of the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP).

Math teachers and their students have a huge number of instructional, testing, tutorial, and other materials available in a bewildering array of formats. Programs and services are offered as software for personal computers or hand-held devices, on stand-alone handhelds and calculators, and as Web-based subscription services. This article takes a look at some of the instructional, testing, and tutorial software or Web-based programs and services for math teaching.

For this article, Audrey Church surveyed a number of e-book providers about their offerings to demonstrate the breadth and depth of the free and fee-based e-book content that's available today, as well as the sophisticated ways that content can be presented, searched, and otherwise worked with. Read on to see what's available from Project Gutenberg, Bartleby.com: Great Books Online, International Children's Digital Library, Gale Virtual Reference Library, Greenwood Publishing Group-eBooks, Follett Library Resource Company, Questia, and more.

Project SMARTArt was created to integrate two principal tenets of media literacy – critical analysis and self-expression – into traditional curricula, according to Tessa Jolls, president of the Center for Media Literacy.

National Geographic and PBS have created a series of four television documentaries and a complementary Web site, all under the moniker Strange Days on Planet Earth, that make for a riveting 21st-century media approach to studying environmental issues.

Although this CIA reference site provides information as of 1 January 2005, it will be updated biweekly throughout the year to provide wide-ranging information about the background, geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for all included countries.

Announced at the 2005 International Reading Association Convention in San Antonio, the Riverdeep products are Destination Reading Course III for grades 4-6, Course IV for grades 6-8, and Course V, a high-school-appropriate Proficiency Course for students who have not mastered the foundational reading skills.

EASE History’s creators describe their Website as “a rich learning environment that supports the learning of U.S. history … by connecting historical events, campaign ads, and core democratic values.” With its more than 600 videos and photographs from 1900 to the present and an interesting interface to explore them, it is indeed all that.

Discovery Health Connection is a Web-based subscription service that provides a digital library of health and prevention resources for K-12 teachers including curriculum guides, worksheets, videos, and extension activities that address nine health and prevention issues for students.

Soliloquy Reading Assistant 3.0 helps students improve reading skills by providing additional practice at reading aloud at school, supplementing teachers' reading lessons. The program listens to students as they read, provides intelligent intervention when needed, and reports student performance to the teacher. Both grade-level reading material and excellent managing software is available.

Advances in technology—including artificial intelligence (AI), as well as computer- and Web-based technologies—have led to the development of exciting instructional and testing applications for teaching writing. Some of the more radical changes are stemming from the development and relatively widespread use of computerized essay correction technology. In this article, learn about an array of essay-scoring products from some of the top testing companies, including Educational Testing Services (e-rater), Pearson Knowledge Technologies (Intelligent Essay Assessor), and Vantage Learning (IntelliMetric).